The perfect wave syndrome

Maxence Gallot is watching the horizon. Over there, out to sea, there is an undulating presence. Somewhere between dream and reality, the surfer’s heart beats for a mass of water with chimerical reflections.

Maxence Gallot

In the early morning when I look out from the top of the dune and I see the lines of the ocean, a shiver runs through me. I can’t help but imagine my wave, the wave that never stops rolling in my dreams. The lines are ephemeral and can be enjoyed in the present moment, but everyone is free to interpret their own. Today, it is a question of reflecting on a wave who’s tale has been told for an eternity, holding its secrets in the wake of legendary surfers.

Maxence Gallot

The perfect wave is the fruit of the unknown. Close to our heart and specific to the combination of natural elements, it remains the result of a complex equation: being in the right place at the right time. No vaccine has been found to date. Successive generations of surfers are all affected with same obsession. Like Bruce Brown’s film, “The Endless Summer”, which testifies to the greatest surfing discoveries of the 1960s, stories of the perfect wave continue to fill magazine pages. They sustain the end-of-session discussions, keep alive photographic myths and flatter the egos of those who tell of riding it.

Maxence Gallot

The wave rolls out everywhere at the same time. It crosses the oceans and appears in anecdotes, sometimes realistic, sometimes a little exaggerated. It ends its journey on a les Landes sandbank, an Indonesian reef with sharp teeth or near a Californian jetty. We are all running after this wave, and one wonders if this utopia only exists in King Kelly’s swimming-pool. What surfer hasn’t arrived after an endless journey, at a magical spot to be told by the Australian who is looking at the line up: “Guys, you should have been here yesterday, it was perfect.”. So, what exactly did we miss? A wave that wasn’t meant for us? Perfection is said to be boring. But this dream of one day surfing “THE” wave and imitating the thousands of surfers who have already surfed it, it obsesses us. Because this wave, flirting with our limits, will guide us to new horizons.

Maxence Gallot

This hope vibrates in each of us and accompanies us even in the troubled waters of sleep. So we keep paddling; onto the web. We surf Google Maps within a technological wave that offers us the hope of a forgotten spot just one click away. Wave maps and the linear contours of the coast are analysed in a moment. We chance a plane ticket and sacrifice a salary with the wild hope of finding it, finally. Of course, luck is part of the journey. On D-Day, following our feelings and using our knowledge, we head out to sea. It is time to get into it, to throw ourselves into its rhythm and to become one with it. When this energy separates us from the world for a moment and frees us from its limits… When this smooth wave comes to us at sunrise, we ask for more. Surfing the wave of your dreams is no easy task, but it’s a good excuse to fill up with endorphins. Every rider lives for this moment.

Maxence Gallot

Hearts adrift, we cling to the oceanic experiences where only our curiosity can keep us on course in the search. These moments remain anchored in each of us. And even if, as is often the case, the experience is different from what we had imagined, the one who pursues the swell keeps the memory.

Maxence Gallot

It is also an addiction for the one who gambles all. It’s like replaying your hand at the casino over and over again. With your heart set on the jackpot, you sometimes risk burning your wings above the great blue. So, rather than paddling far and wide, sometimes you have to face the facts: not looking any further than the end of your board is also good. The wave breaking under the board at this present moment, you have to know how to enjoy it. With that, it’s time to go surfing, the perfect wave will wait.

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